Meet Brett Michael Orr

Tell me as much as you can about yourself in only one sentence.I’m a homeschooled writer from Australia with a passion for creating commercial fiction read around the world, and in my spare time, I’m a student (and tutor) of Information Technology!

Share a favorite quote or small excerpt from your latest work.“It was the middle of summer, and it was snowing outside.” – the opening sentence of THE BUREAU OF TIME.

Why do you write? Because I can’t paint, make movies, or act. So my creative juices need an outlet, and writing feels quite natural for me. I can see myself as an author – it’s my life goal.

Where do you write? When do you write? Any strange rituals?Usually, anywhere I can. My desk, the couch, a book café…my computer is always with me, so my book is always with me too. I write whenever I can, though the afternoon or evening usually works a little bit for me (but I’m learning to activate my writing abilities no matter what time of day). No strange rituals, but I usually try to play music loud enough to block out my surroundings.

I just might have an overuse word problem. I just can’t help myself. There are just times when I just need to just express myself. What’s your biggest writing hangup? Probably the way that my sentences start in the past tense, then flick to continuous past. Other than that, I tend to use ‘very’ quite often – not as an adverb, but as an adjective (which is even worse than over-using it as an adverb…)

Life is full of hard choices. Would you rather be a hobbit or an elf and why? Hobbit. They live in the most peaceful part of Middle-Earth, in nice warm homes and all they do is eat food and drink tea. And every once in a while (not too often to be really concerning) they might go on an Adventure!

Do you have a “day” job or career outside of writing?I’m a university student in my last semester of a Bachelor of Information Technology, and I’ll be starting a Bachelor of Arts (Extended Major of Writing) next semester. I also work at the university as a sessional academic, tutoring a postgraduate unit on programming.

2. Light side, dark side, or tragically caught on the edge of both worlds? Dark Side. What? Don’t look at me like that…wouldn’t you want to shoot lightning out of your hands?

3. E-reader, print book, audiobook, or a combination?If you’d asked me this a month ago, I would’ve said e-Reader hands-down, but now I’ve come back to the physical book way of thinking and I’m not sure I can go back. So print book.

4. Cat person, dog person, or I forgot to feed my fish, and it died?I identify as a cat person, though I’ve never owned a cat. I might just have been on the internet too long…

What type of writing project(s) are you working on right now? I’m working on a Young Adult Science-Fiction novel entitled THE BUREAU OF TIME. I’ll be seeking representation for it towards the end of the year!

What does your favorite protagonist think about you?That I’m a cruel, heartless bastard because I have a tendency to randomly kill people and throw my characters into a headspin with shocking revelation about their world.

Oh, I wanna dance with somebody! Would you dance with me? If so, pick a style of dance you like and the best song to go with it: My style of dance is called ‘sitting still’. The moves are: sit down, try not to move, settle with tapping your leg, realize you’re terribly out of tune, manage an awkward cough and hope nobody noticed.

What do you do when you aren’t writing? University studies. I’m also a gamer, though I haven’t had much time to game lately…

Do you stick to one genre or switch it up? Which genre scares you the most and why?I usually stick to some flavor of Sci-Fi, dystopian etc. Epic Fantasy scares me a lot – I’d love to write it, but every time I’ve tried, it’s been a dismal failure.

Predict the future: Yours or mine, I’m flexible. Just make it interesting.Let’s say ten years from now? I hope to be a published author, probably with a residence in Australia but routinely visiting America for book tours. You’ll be published too and we might even run into eachother at book conferences!

Aliens have conquered Earth and are forcing you to give up either reading or writing. What’s it going to be? (And no cheating. If you choose writing, you’re not allowed to read your own work after writing it.) You thought that one through, didn’t you? I’ll give up…reading. I’d rather stick to writing the most realistic alien-invasion SF novel ever!

I can tell you’re hiding something interesting from me. Fess up now, and I’ll go easy on you:Something interesting? I have a really high (96th percentile) IQ. Does that count as interesting?

What’s your biggest writing fear, and how do you manage it? My biggest writing fear (surprise surprise) is that I’ll never make it. I manage it by telling myself that the only way I’ll never make it, is if I let the fear consume me and stop me from writing anything in the first place.

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B.A.Wilson

B.A. Wilson lives in Missouri and works as a Public Library Services Consultant. She has 4 library cards, fosters a serious One-Click addiction, and is cultivating a new infatuation with all things Audible. At any given moment, she is most likely reading 5 different novels, in at least 3 different formats.
Wilson earned her Bachelor of Arts in Music & Tourism, and received a Masters of Science in Library Science and Information Services. This delightful combination of degrees qualified her to spend most of the past decade dissecting love triangles with library patrons and discussing the post-apocalypse with middle school kids, while mentally soundtracking her favorite novels.
Wilson enjoys reading and writing YA novels, consuming caffeinated beverages, and spending too much time on Twitter and Instagram.